Rye, Peter K

Rye, Peter K., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Norway in 1839. It is not known at what time he came to the United States; but in 1858, while a resident of Hart Prairie, Wis., he was converted; prosecuted his studies at the Garrett Biblical Institute, and in 1861 was licensed to preach. In 1862 he was admitted on trial into the Rock River Conference, and at the close of the year was transferred to the Wisconsin Conference. In 1864 he was transferred back to the Rock River Conference and made superintendent of the Scandinavian Mission, with his headquarters at Copenhagen, Denmark. He returned to America in 1869, and continued to work until a few weeks before his death, March 16, 1873. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1873, p. 101. Rykajoth, in the mythology of the ancient Prussians, was a place in which inferior deities were worshipped, always located under the shade of oak, lime, or elder trees. The superior gods were worshipped in similar places at Romowa (q.v.).